Hadestown's Patrick Page on Finding the Humanity in Dark Characters and Reuniting with Reeve Carney on Stage

Patrick Page has been bringing Hades, the god of the underworld, to life on stage in Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown since its New York Stage premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in 2016. Originally a 2010 folk opera concept album by Mitchell, Hadestown has been garnering fans for almost 10 years. "The audience kind of goes crazy when we walk out on the stage at the beginning," Page said in a recent interview on Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. "I think a lot of them have the album. We're getting a lot of repeat people already. The stage door's kind of crazy. There's usually a couple hundred people out there. It's like a rock concert."

Although Page has been portraying the notorious Greek god for years, he's still discovering new things about the part every day. "His thirst for power comes from a pretty soft place," Page said. "He's just so in love with his wife. While she's gone, he's just going crazy thinking that she doesn't love him anymore. And so everything he does in terms of building walls, building factories, imprisoning people, getting more people to work for him and into his cult, as it were, is a way of trying to impress Persephone and bring her closer." This isn't the first time that Page has brought new vision to a well-known villainous character, having played Scar in The Lion King,  The Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and more. "Playing these dark characters, I see their cracks," Page said. "We all have cracks in us, and maybe their cracks are just a little bigger, or maybe they've tried to fill in their cracks a little too much or they're trying to hide their cracks from you. You find the justification in playing them."

Hadestown marks both Page's 15th Broadway production and the second time he's worked opposite Reeve Carney, who played Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. "To me, one of the great gifts of doing this production is getting to work with Reeve again," Page said. "I always say he's one of the best people on the planet in addition to being ridiculously talented. I think of him as the son I never had. I get a little choked up talking about him. I love him a lot."

Having a deep connection with the other actors on stage is vital for Page to have a successful show. "I always say I can't do the show without Amber [Gray]," Page said. "My show is entirely dependent on looking into her eyes and what she gives me. I feel like now we're an old married couple, and we can go into that make-believe world every night without a lot of effort."

Catch Page in Hadestown, now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

Watch the full episode of #LiveatFive below!